Mayor Chuck Reed's final state of the city: San Jose must get safer

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed gives his final State of the City speech at the McEnery San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014. Reed has served 8 years as mayor of the largest city in the Bay Area. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed gives his final State of the City speech at the McEnery San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014. Reed has served 8 years as mayor of the largest city in the Bay Area. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)
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Dan Honda
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SAN JOSE -- In his eighth and final state of the city address, Mayor Chuck Reed on Thursday vowed to spend his final year in office trying to make San Jose safer by bolstering the depleted police force, speeding up 911 response times and reducing homelessness.

Those are among the top concerns of the city's nearly 1 million residents in this key election year in which four of Reed's City Council allies are among those running to succeed him.

"Unfortunately, we don't have the resources to do as much as we want or need to do," Reed said toward the end of his speech. But he concluded: "We've got 10 months and eight days to go. Let's make every day count. Please join me to make San Jose a great city that we can all be proud of."

The half-hour evening speech at the newly revamped San Jose McEnery Convention Center offered the 65-year-old mayor an opportunity to reflect on his seven years in office -- which he called "challenging and difficult" -- and lay out his vision for his final year before he is termed out:

The mayor vowed to restore the ranks of a police department depleted by budget cuts and waves of retirements and resignations. Pay and benefit cuts he championed to ease the bite of soaring employee retirement costs have helped prompt cops to leave in recent years. While he promised to continue efforts to keep and recruit officers, police union critics continue to blame him for the officer exodus.

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Reed advocated for changes in the way the fire department responds to 911 medical calls, as response times have consistently missed county targets in the past year, leading county supervisors last month to issue big penalties. But the firefighters union opposes his proposals, such as using smaller vehicles with fewer firefighters or even motorcycles for medical calls.

He will push to spend more money and partner with the county, among other groups, to provide housing and other services to the city's nearly 5,000 homeless people.

He will vote on March 4 to put the renewal of the city's library parcel tax on the June ballot but stopped short of supporting a possible half-cent sales tax increase that could reach the November ballot.

He hoped the city's ongoing court case against Major League Baseball will be settled by the end of the year: "I look forward to watching the next mayor throw the first pitch for the San Jose A's," he said..

County supervisor and mayoral candidate Dave Cortese said Reed deserves much of the blame for the public safety problems he's trying to address.

"It's going to be an uphill battle for him to make any real progress in the last few months," Cortese said.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed gives his final State of the City speech at the McEnery San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014. Reed has served 8 years as mayor of the largest city in the Bay Area. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)
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Dan Honda
)

In his first state of the city speech, in 2007, he promised before he left office to wipe out what was then the sixth straight year of funding shortfalls. The budget is now essentially balanced, helped in part by surging revenues and the various cuts Reed and his colleagues have made to help offset increased retirement costs for city employees.

Still, he implored the city's future mayor and council members to "stand on our shoulders" and continue the fiscal restraint, conceding that the city's full financial problems can't be solved before he leaves office on Dec. 31.

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed gives his final State of the City speech at the McEnery San Jose Convention Center in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 20, 2014. Reed has served 8 years as mayor of the largest city in the Bay Area. (Dan Honda/Bay Area News Group)
(
Dan Honda
)